THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 17, 1995 TAG: 9509150223
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 09 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LISE OLSEN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 149 lines
IT'S NOT A GOOD idea to follow Rufus W. ``Rusty'' Gaul's Chevy pickup too closely.
Day or night, he'll slam on his brakes and jump out on the highway in hot pursuit of a snake, a turtle or even - road kill.
``I don't want to encourage people to run over snakes,'' he says. ``But I got a lot of my specimens that way.''
He keeps about 1,000 of them in jars in the carport of his house in Bath.
His most recent additions lie on ice in a blue-and-white cooler in the back of the truck. He eases open the lid to expose an only slightly damaged rat snake, a banded water snake and a hideous, headless cottonmouth, along with two soft drinks.
He often dissects these finds to explore the snakes' eating habits, or their stage of life or reproduction. But, truth be told, Gaul would much rather find live snakes.
``If it's not venomous, I grab it with my bare hand. And if I want it bad enough, I have to let it bite me,'' he explains. ``It doesn't hurt.''
For most of his life, Gaul, 34, has hunted snakes - first for fun, and now for science. For the last four years, the herpetologist has devoted much of his time to discerning the difference between two closely related water snakes: the Carolina salt marsh snake and the northern water snake.
It's the focus of his master's thesis at East Carolina University. And he plans to take his search right down to the snake genes.
When he's not stuck in a lab in Greenville, Gaul is one of the most active academic snake hunters in northeastern North Carolina. (There are plenty of others who try to catch them to sell or keep as pets.)
On a good night - like when he's found a warm road after a rainfall - Gaul can collect as many as a dozen. His personal record is 27 snakes in one night, collected in a Florida swamp.
``Thirty-one, counting the road kill,'' he adds, with a smile.
On a more recent trip to a rattlesnake den in the Carolina mountains, Gual spotted more than a dozen venomous snakes.
Back home in southeastern North Carolina, warm highways, swamp water and garbage dumps on dead-end roads are his favorite hunting grounds.
On the last weekend in August - and, more importantly, canebrake rattlesnake mating season - Gaul takes some guests with him into a couple of prime snake-hunting spots in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, near Manns Harbor.
It's been almost too hot and dry for good snaking this year. But a light morning rain has lifted Gaul's hopes for this Sunday's snaking.
Gaul walks through the mud on a dead-end road carrying his implements of snake collection: a short rake and a specially made tong for venomous snakes (which can also be used to flip steaks on a barbecue).
His target: an unsightly dump filled with everything from old sofas to a discarded ``Western Flyer'' wagon. As he begins turning over pieces of wood and metal with his rake, Gaul explains what attracts snakes to such sites: ``food and shelter.''
More specifically, snakes, especially pregnant females, like to sit on sun-warmed metal because it keeps them warm and makes their young come faster.
Because of the attraction, Gaul stocks his own farm fields with sheets of tin, hoping to attract snakes. So far, he's built up a herd of 15 to 20 king snakes. He says he's glad to have them, but kings are so big that they scare away other species.
Today in the swamp, where Gaul flips garbage as if it were pancakes, the snakes just aren't around. Rain mixes with sweat on his face; his auburn hair is plastered wet in a few minutes.
Then, way back in the weeds of the dump, a female snake emerges. Rusty grabs her by the tail. She wiggles, and lunges.
``I think she could probably bite me if she wanted to,'' he cooly comments.
He expertly flips her between his legs, and pins her long enough to establish a more secure hold behind the head. He stoops and looks deep into the face with its slitted eyes and flashing tongue: ``Yessss,'' he says to her alone.
He can tell from her scarlet underside that she's a common red-bellied water snake. What's less obvious to his amateur guests is that this 3-foot-long critter has just given birth, perhaps to as many as 20 little snakes probably also hidden in this trash heap. Gaul discerns this from some folds in her skin. He also guesses her age at about 8 to 10 years - old for a snake.
``She's probably seen me before,'' he says. After a while, she seems calm in his grasp. But as soon as he lets her go, she quickly disappears.
The red-bellied water snake is one of 28 species common in this area. Among the others are brightly colored corns, immense kings that eat other snakes, venomous cottonmouths and canebrake rattlesnakes. But none has chosen to hang out in this dump today.
So it's on to dump two - a really ``primo'' site, Gaul says.
The spot is marked by a tumble-down shack a bit further west on U.S. 64.
In the surrounding weeds, a snake lover has carefully laid out more than 30 pieces of discarded roofing tins. Rusty, rake in hand, sets out to turn them all.
He could find anything here. But he's completely fearless - of snakes, anyway. ``You've got to watch out for really dangerous things like wasps and hornets,'' he warns.
Under one of the last pieces, he nabs another female red-bellied water snake. She really wants to bite him, lunging repeatedly at his jeans and thin T-shirt, grabbing the cotton with her teeth. Finally, he catches her behind the head and talks to her, as he did to her cousin down the road.
After two hours, the amateur snake hunters are ready to change into some warm clothes.
But Rusty will continue to snake hunt well into the night - driving down the roads in his pickup at about 30 miles an hour, if he can get away with it.
Looking for snakes. Or road kill. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by VICKI CRONIS
Rufus W. ``Rusty'' Gaul, a graduate student at East Carolina
University, pokes around the yard of an abandoned home looking for
snakes.
The contents of Rusty Gaul's cooler: two sodas, a bag of ice and
snakes found dead or dying on the road.
Rusty Gaul takes a break after hunting for snakes on a recent rainy
day.
Rusty Gaul holds the second red-bellied water snake that he has
caught during a night's hunting. This one was under a piece of tin
roofing at a site in Mann's Harbour. Old roofing is a favorite
hiding spot for snakes.
For most of his life, Gaul, 34, has hunted snakes - first for fun,
and now for science. For the last four years, the herpetologist has
devoted much of his time to discerning the difference between two
closely related water snakes: the Carolina salt marsh snake and the
northern water snake.It's the focus of his master's thesis at East
Carolina University.
[side bar]
A few words of caution about snakes
Rusty Gaul makes it look easy, but don't try grabbing snakes
yourself unless you know what you're doing.
Some of the 28 species of snakes native to northeastern North
Carolina are venomous.
But don't kill snakes either - most are harmless and eat unwanted
rodents.
Some even make good pets.
A few, like corn snakes and king snakes, could even be called
attractive.
by CNB